Walter Cronkite's influence on Generation X (Generation Cronkite)

Examiner.com-Nashville ^ | 7-20-2009 | Raymond Gellner

[Colonel Kangaroo]

A touching piece about the intimate relationship between Uncle Walter and a whole generation, Generation X, forever destined to be known as Generation Cronkite.

[elcid1970]

This babyboomer Vietnam vet thinks Cronkite was and is sh*t!

Thought it when I was there and think the same now.

[massgopguy]

One of his colleagues was lauding him back when he retired. he told a story of how they were at the lunch place where all the newshounds frequented. He said a fire engine came roaring by and everyone sat there except Cronkite who grabbed a pad and paper and gave chase. I think the rest of the story would have noted that Cronkite pulled a Chew and Screw.

[TexasCajun]

Did they bury Uncle Walt someplace in France?

[Argus]

the death of former correspondent and newscaster Walter Cronkite gripped the entire nation last week and continues to do so.

Sorry, I'm about as un-gripped as possible.

[Artemis Webb]

What a bunch of horsecrap. I was born in 1960 and my memories of Cronkite are threefold:

1. Hosting “You Are There” on Saturday mornings.
2. His myopic American body count during the Vietnam War.
3 My father proclaiming at a high decibel level that Cronkite was, “nothing but a Goddamn communist” and was to be replaced by John Chancellor and NBC.

[Artemis Webb]

by the way...my father was right.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I remember Cronkite in a positive way for a historical TV show, the Twentieth Century, in the early 60s that was good, but the older I became the impressions got worse and worse until the only thing I could say about his public professional image was that at least he wasn't Dan Rather. And I'd still choose him over Katie Couric.

[poobear]

Your Father was D@MN right!

Born in 1957 punk! /s

[BeerLover NYC]

I was born in 1958 and I do remember Cronkite very well. But as far as him having a real effect on me, I really can’t say that.

[Jim from C-Town]

“A touching piece about the intimate relationship between Uncle Walter and a whole generation, Generation X, forever destined to be known as Generation Cronkite.”

Horse Sh*t. Generation X is commonly referred to as the Generation following the The Baby Boomers, (1946-1964)AKA “The Greatest Pain in the Ass Generation.”

Generation X is generally referred as those born between 1965 - 1980. The members of this generation would have ranged in age from a maximum age of 16 and a minimum age of less than 1 year old at the time that Cronkite retired. The one thing that all Baby boomers have in common is a conscious memory of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush as presidents, and the fall of the Soviet Union.

The idea that anyone in My generation would be morning the loss of a person whom they had little to no conscious memory of is ridiculous on its face.

[RanGreHad]

Chancellor was even farther to the left.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

The article is an example of the typical broad brush “generation” nonsense which tries to link a whole group of people into a category of virtue or vice due to the accident of a similar birth year and bound together by some person or symbol of mass media triviality such as Cronkite. The fact the the cultural symbol here is a deceased leftist newsreader makes this piece even more hilarious than most of the genre.

[BillyBoy]

I agree. I was in diapers when Cronkite retired as anchor. Generation X grew up with Dan Rather an anchor of CBS news.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I agree. I was in diapers when Cronkite retired as anchor. Generation X grew up with Dan Rather an anchor of CBS news.

That could be an effective argument for labeling Generation X as "Generation Rather".

[3niner]

Walter Cronkite mainstreamed lying by the MSM.

[Melian]

I was born in 1956. I thought most of the Boomers were jerks then, and I feel that way now. I hated all the conflict, screaming, and sarcasm they threw at everyone back then. I was so tired of “My Generation.”

I used to turn the news off because I couldn’t bear watching our soldiers struggle in that awful situation. When I heard Cronkite had died I felt absolutely nothing. He had no impact on me at all.

[3niner]

The leftists have shown how much they’ve idolized MJ and Uncle Walter. MJ might have been the crazier, but Uncle Walter was far more destructive.

[C19fan]

Cronkite reitred in 1981. I was 13 at that time. I have faint memories of watching him. I suppose I can be called more Generation Rather in a weird way. I realized as I grew older, say before I graduated from college, how biased Rather and his ilk were and he turned me off to watching network news forever.

[Artemis Webb]

"Chancellor was even farther to the left." I kind of disagree.

The reason I say this is that I always have held the opinion that if I could not tell what a journalist political leanings were then I really didn't care what they were. It was to their credit that they kept their opinions out of their journalism. When Chancellor was doing the nightly broadcast for NBC I generally found him to be fair. After Tom Brokaw became the anchor Chancellor would appear frequently to give editorials. Those editorials were unquestionably liberal but again as long as they were presented as opinion I didn't care (much).

Juxtapose Chancellor with his frequent fill-in anchor Garrick Utley and the issue became more resolved. Utley parsed any story he could into "Democrats are good and Republicans are evil" stories.

I felt the same about Tom Brokaw, considering him liberal but fair until his infamous Mother Jones interview.